Lecture
Purpose of the topic: to examine the organization of the procedure for personnel assessment using psychodiagnostic methods.
Outline of the topic:
2.1 Factors necessitating organizational-managerial diagnostics.
2.2 Requirements for organizing and conducting psychodiagnostic procedures. Principles for structuring a psychological study. Typical errors in conducting personnel psychodiagnostics.
2.3 Psychodiagnostic conclusion. Requirements for presenting results. The psychodiagnostic diagnosis as a basis for conducting corrective, developmental, and training procedures, and as a basis for making management decisions.
Diagnostics and assessment of personnel are needed when addressing personnel tasks such as:
regulation of the organization's activities;
development of motivational policy;
formation of a personnel reserve, rotation within the collective;
identifying training needs; reducing the risk associated with an employee's incompetence;
the need to verify an employee's fitness for their position (personnel appraisal/certification) - identifying employees' loyalty to the company; making decisions on promotion, changes in pay, completion of a probationary period, and so on.
There is a wide variety of personnel assessment methods: the standard rating method; the forced-choice method; the descriptive method; the questionnaire method; the observation-scale method; the situation-modelling method; the cross-sociometric assessment method («360»). Each has its own advantages and drawbacks, so the reliability and uniformity of criteria and the validity of the indicators used take on particular importance in choosing methods. The greatest difficulty is presented by the assessment of personal qualities: the need to choose from a broad spectrum, combined with subjectivity in perceiving them, often leads to a distorted assessment.
A psychodiagnostician uses methods and procedures that have undergone sufficient validation in scientific research and have been adapted for specific purposes. When testing psychodiagnostic procedures that have not received proper scientific evaluation, the examinee must be informed of this. They have every right to refuse the examination if concerns arise about the incorrectness of the method or about their own well-being. Inhumane methods of influence, or ones that demean a person's sense of dignity, are not applicable in the course of psychodiagnostic procedures.
Requirements for Psychological Diagnostic Tools
A diagnostic psychologist uses in their practical work only those techniques that pose no threat to the physical and mental health of the examinee. At the same time, the number and content of the techniques must be adequate to the purposes of the examination and must reflect the possibility of proving or rejecting the psychodiagnostic hypothesis. The techniques must be appropriate to the age, education and psychophysiological state of the examinee, as well as to the place and time of the examination, and must possess high validity and reliability.
A serious problem for domestic psychodiagnostics is the mass reproduction of techniques, which is often accompanied by a large number of errors in the text of the tasks and distortion of the technique's name, stimulus material and instructions. Unfortunately, the authors who directly created or adapted the techniques are not always indicated. Such availability distorts the picture of the psychodiagnostic examination and reduces the diagnostic and predictive capabilities of the tests. Any public disclosure of a test task can invalidate subsequent testing. Publicity, often combined with unqualified interpretation, can give rise to either naive credulity or a general public rejection of psychological practice. Tests should not be printed in newspapers and magazines, whether for the purposes of self-analysis or for entertainment. A test administered by non-specialists, without regard for the individual characteristics of the personality and without observing the requirements of the testing procedure, with distortion of the instructions, may prove psychologically harmful.
The need to form an ethical stance in a psychologist, especially a practicing one, is also due to the fact that the use of psychodiagnostic techniques and tests is currently turning into a process controlled by no one and by nothing. The illusion that a psychologist's work is simple, and the possibility of "success" in resolving domestic, "kitchen-table" interpersonal problems, attracts to psychodiagnostics, and to psychotherapy as well, people who not only lack psychological training but are professionally unfit for it. The availability of stimulus material and of all sorts of "keys" for the initial decoding of the results obtained leads to their being freely interpreted, and to the emergence, among non-professional psychologists and among specialists in disciplines related to or far removed from psychology, of a false belief in the psychologist's limitless capabilities and in the ease of making a psychological diagnosis - for which the psychologist bears no responsibility whatsoever.
An orientation toward ethical norms - not only in making a psychological diagnosis and drawing up a psychological report, but also in organizing the study and interpreting the results obtained, in forecasting life prospects and in choosing the means of psychological assistance - is a distinguishing feature of the work of a professional psychodiagnostician. An orientation toward ethical principles helps one recognize the limits of one's own capabilities and of the capabilities of psychodiagnostics. Observance of ethical norms is a personal matter for each psychologist, reflecting their own professional and social stance. By contrast, a legal code rests on legal norms that permit coercive action against those persons who violate it and are convicted by a court, as well as against those against whom criminal proceedings have been brought by the judicial authorities. Thus, for a psychologist the sole overseer of compliance with ethical norms can only be their own conscience.
Measurement methods (tests) must satisfy the following requirements:
a) the goals, subject matter and scope of application of the technique must be unambiguously formulated. The subject matter, the diagnostic construct (concept), must be formulated in theoretical terms and related, at the theoretical level, to a system of relevant concepts. The scope of application must be clearly delineated, meaning a particular social environment or sphere of social practice (industry, medicine, family life, etc.) and the contingent of subjects (sex, age, education, professional experience, position held). The purposes for using the results must be specified: for predicting success in professional activity, for psychological intervention, for making legal or administrative decisions, for predicting the stability of a collective, and so on;
b) the administration procedure must be specified as an unambiguous algorithm suitable for handing over to a laboratory assistant with no special psychological knowledge, or to a computer used for presenting the tasks and analysing the answers;
c) the scoring procedure must include statistically sound methods for calculating and standardizing the test score (against statistical or criterion-referenced test norms). Conclusions (diagnostic judgements) based on the test score must be accompanied by an indication of the probabilistic level of statistical confidence of those conclusions;
d) test scales must be checked for representativeness, reliability and validity within the given scope of application. Other developers and qualified users must be able to repeat the standardization studies in their own field and to develop local standards (norms);
e) procedures based on self-report must be equipped with means of checking their trustworthiness, allowing unreliable protocols to be automatically screened out;
f) the lead methodological organization of a given department (field of application) must maintain a database of data collected using the test and must periodically correct all of the technique's standards.
Requirements for the Psychodiagnostic Examination Procedure
A psychodiagnostic examination and study is an activity of the psychologist whose end result is a psychological report, and it includes the following stages.
1. Preliminary preparation.
- Distinguishing between the client and the customer.
- Formulating the purpose of the study.
- Organizing and standardizing the conditions: availability of a room, tables, pens, reproduction of forms, timing, equal conditions for several groups. Absence of noise, music, and outside people.
- Storage of results. Selection of techniques. Processing of results.
2. Establishing contact with, and motivating, the subjects.
- An atmosphere of friendliness and businesslike efficiency, fostering in the subject a serious and responsible attitude toward the work. Behave naturally and easily, answer all questions, avoid a mentoring tone, and do not turn friendliness into familiarity.
- Motivation can take various forms; the main goal is to get the subjects interested in the testing. A guarantee of confidentiality where necessary.
- The fullest possible instructions. Write them on the board. Cut off unnecessary questions («ask that later»).
- Requirements for the personal and professional qualities of the psychodiagnostician. (The ability to win people over, inspire their trust, and elicit sincerity in their answers. If the subject is psychologically open and trusts the psychologist, they will answer the questions addressed to them in the questionnaire as sincerely as they would to the psychologist personally. If they sense an unfriendly attitude, they will not answer the corresponding questions, or will give answers designed to annoy the experimenter.)
3. Collecting data in accordance with the aim of the study (the examination proper).
4. Processing, analysing and interpreting the data. Drawing up the conclusion, prognosis and recommendations.
5. Presenting the result. The form of presentation depends on the aim of the study - from a brief note to a full report. Particulars of writing the report.
A written (or oral) psychodiagnostic report is the final stage of psychodiagnostics. The content of the report includes all the data available to the diagnostic psychologist, both test data and other data (from other sources). Principles for writing the report (according to A. Anastasi):
1. The content and style of the report depend on the theoretical orientation and specialization of the diagnostic psychologist. For this reason they have no single standard form or rule of composition. What matters is that the report should correspond to the needs, interests and level of preparation of those who will receive it. In a report intended for both specialists and lay people, a brief substantive summary should be given first, followed by a more detailed description of the specific data.
2. The content of the report must necessarily indicate the purpose of the diagnostic study: whether the task included giving some specific recommendations, or whether a simple consultation was required.
3. The report is usually oriented toward action, that is, it gives recommendations regarding training programmes, choice of profession, career advancement, and the like.
4. A report is effective if it reflects the distinctive properties of the particular individual, that is, traits whose examination results were either significantly below or significantly above average indicators. In other words, the report must pertain only to the given person, not to people whose age, sex, education, socio-economic level and other factors are close to the corresponding data of the examinee.
5. The content of the report consists of the interpretation of the data obtained and the conclusions; test records and other data may be appended separately to illustrate or clarify the approach.
6. Any descriptive assessment of an individual's actions, and the rating system itself, must be clear-cut. Whether the assessment is criterion-referenced or norm-referenced, it must always be indicated against what norms the individual's indicators are being compared.
A psychological diagnosis is the end result of a psychologist's activity, aimed at describing and clarifying the essence of an individual's psychological characteristics, for the purpose of assessing their current state, forecasting further development, and drawing up recommendations determined by the aim of the psychodiagnostic examination. The subject of a psychological diagnosis is the establishment of individual psychological differences within norm and pathology. The most important element of a psychological diagnosis is the need to clarify, in each individual case, why the given manifestations appear in the examinee's behaviour, and what their causes and consequences are.
L.S. Vygotsky identified three levels of diagnosis:
1. Symptomatic (empirical) diagnosis. Limited to noting certain features or symptoms, on the basis of which practical conclusions are drawn; the researcher lacks the ability to point to their causes and place in the structure of the personality. Vygotsky notes that such a diagnosis is not, properly speaking, scientific, since establishing symptoms never automatically leads to a diagnosis.
2. Etiological diagnosis. Takes into account not only the presence of certain features (symptoms) but also the causes of their occurrence.
3. The highest level - typological diagnosis. It consists in determining the place and significance of the data obtained within the holistic, dynamic picture of the personality, taking into account its complex structure.
Diagnosis is inseparably linked with prognosis. According to Vygotsky, the content of prognosis and diagnosis coincide, but a prognosis is built on the ability to understand «the internal logic of the self-movement of the developmental process well enough that, on the basis of the past and the present, a path of development can be outlined». L.S. Vygotsky recommended breaking the prognosis down into separate periods and resorting to prolonged, repeated observations.
There are also two further types of diagnosis that can be distinguished.
1. Diagnosis based on establishing the presence or absence of some trait. The subject's data can be related to some norm (for example, when determining developmental pathology) or to a criterion.
2. Diagnosis that makes it possible to locate the subject or group of subjects on a scale of the degree to which particular qualities are expressed. This requires comparing the diagnostic data obtained within the examined sample, ranking the subjects by the degree to which particular indicators are present, and introducing an indicator of high, medium and low levels of development of the characteristics being studied by relating them to a criterion.
Detailed Psychological Diagnosis
A detailed psychological diagnosis includes diagnostic results on the following aspects.
1) Studying the general level of a person's mental development.
2) Investigating the balance of the personality structure, as well as the predominance within it of particular psychological features.
3) Identifying conscious or unconscious psychological problems.
4) Clarifying the personality's subjective attitude toward the problems being experienced.
5) Assessing the overall adaptive potential on which positive psychological correction or psychotherapy could rely.
Communicating the Results of a Psychodiagnostic Study to the Client
Psychodiagnostics attempts to answer three questions:
- What is happening?
- What is causing it?
- What will happen next?
The psychodiagnostician must prepare the client to receive the psychodiagnostic information, establishing contact with them and clarifying the task of the interaction. In solving the psychodiagnostic task, the diagnostician remains clearly oriented toward its content and toward the adequacy with which the client perceives that content.
In conveying psychological information, the psychodiagnostician seeks to obtain feedback from the client, the content of which allows them to determine the client's attitude toward the information and toward the psychodiagnostician themselves as the source of that information. To this end, the psychodiagnostician may ask the client to repeat back the information they have been given, or may ask a direct question about how clear the information is.
One of the key points in conveying psychodiagnostic information is that it be non-evaluative. To this end, the diagnostician holds a preliminary conversation with the client, in the course of which they try to show the client the difference between a social or ethical task and the psychological task that the psychodiagnostician is solving.
One of the forms in which the results of a psychodiagnostic examination are communicated is psychometric data, expressed in particular scores, scales and other metric quantities. In this case the client's individual results can be represented as a point on a scale of possible results. Thus the client receives criteria for evaluating the results obtained for them by the psychodiagnostician using the technique, and can carry out the evaluative act themselves.
In most cases, users of psychological information are inclined to evaluate it. It is important for the diagnostician to shape an adequate perception of the information. For example, one can introduce the context of an age-related or individual norm of mental development - doing everything possible to steer the client away from independently interpreting the psychodiagnostic information. Otherwise, it is necessary to find out how the client is doing so.
The basic norms for interacting with the client regarding psychological information:
- communicate the information, rather than evaluate it;
- communicate the information in an adequate form.
Ethical principles for interpreting test results:
- do not create unnecessary expectations;
- speak to the person in their own language;
- do not assert anything you are not sure of;
- speak only in a way that you will be understood unambiguously;
- leave the client no grounds for drawing incorrect inferences on their own.
Requirements for the Diagnostician
Different requirements are placed on a diagnostician who is a professional psychologist and on a non-psychologist user.
Psychologist user:
a) must know and apply in practice the general theoretical and methodological principles of psychodiagnostics, must have a command of the fundamentals of differential psychometrics, must keep abreast of current methodological literature on psychodiagnostics, and must independently maintain a card index and a personal library of techniques used in the given field;
b) must bear responsibility for decisions made on the basis of testing, ensuring that they correspond to the representativeness and predictive validity of the technique, and must forestall possible errors made by non-professionals unfamiliar with the limitations on the use of a particular test;
c) must enjoy a preferential right, compared with non-professional users, to conduct psychodiagnostics in the given field and to use the protocols in accordance with professional-ethical principles and the interests of psychology. The psychologist enjoys a preferential right to obtain methodological materials, including by acquiring them as individual professional property. The psychologist ensures the necessary level of diagnostic reliability by using parallel standardized and non-standardized techniques, as well as the method of independent expert appraisal;
d) must not, in selecting techniques for a battery (examination programme), be guided by subjective preferences and biases in evaluating the techniques, but must proceed from the requirements of maximum diagnostic effectiveness - maximum reliability at minimum cost;
e) must, in parallel with using the techniques, carry out scientific-methodological work, analysing from the data collected the effectiveness of applying the technique in the given field. Carrying out such scientific-methodological work is among the core duties of a psychologist working in research and practical institutions. In this work the psychologist maintains ongoing contact with the lead methodological organization, passing on to it copies of the protocols (for accumulating databases) and receiving instructional methodological materials in return;
e) must ensure strict compliance with all requirements for administering standardized assessment methods. Scoring, interpretation, and prognosis are carried out in strict accordance with the methodological guidelines. The psychologist has no right to deviate from the standard for using the method that has been adopted for a given period. The psychologist forwards all complaints and suggestions concerning the use of the method to the methodological centre and requires that they be taken into account at the next revision of the method;
f) must ensure the confidentiality of psychodiagnostic information obtained from the examinee on the basis of personal trust. The psychologist must always warn the examinee about who may use his or her results and for what purpose. The psychologist has no right to conceal from the examinee what decisions may be made on the basis of the psychological diagnosis;
g) must keep professional secrecy: not pass instructional materials to persons not authorized to conduct psychodiagnostic practice, and not disclose to potential examinees the secret underlying the validity of a given psychodiagnostic method;
h) must always consider, alongside the most probable one, an alternative diagnostic hypothesis (interpretation of the data), applying in psychodiagnostics a principle analogous to the presumption of innocence in legal proceedings;
i) must report to the regional or central bodies of the Society of Psychologists any violations of normative (procedural and ethical) principles of psychodiagnostics that he or she has noticed anywhere. The psychologist is authorized to personally prevent incorrect and unethical application of psychodiagnostics. Certain theoretically and psychometrically sound methods that do not require specialized knowledge for interpretation may be used by specialists in fields adjacent to psychology: teachers, physicians, sociologists, engineers, economists, and others.
The non-psychologist specialist user.
Certain well-founded methods, both theoretically and psychometrically, that do not require specialized knowledge for interpretation, may be used by specialists in fields adjacent to psychology: teachers, physicians, sociologists, engineers, economists. In this case the non-psychologist specialist (user) must meet the following requirements:
a) consult beforehand with psychologists working in the given practical field about which specific methods may be applied to solve the tasks at hand. If certified methods are available, the user must use precisely those;
b) if psychologists warn the user that correct use of the method requires general knowledge of psychodiagnostics or special training (in mastering the method), the user must either choose a different method, undergo appropriate training, involve a psychologist in conducting the psychodiagnostics, or refrain from conducting the psychodiagnostics altogether;
c) a user who gains access to «psychodiagnostic methods» automatically assumes the obligation to observe professional secrecy;
d) the user observes all ethical standards in conducting the assessment with respect to the examinee and any third parties: like the psychologist, he has no right to abuse trust, and is obliged to warn the examinee how the information will be used;
e) methods not provided with an unambiguous standard instruction and the necessary indicators of reliability and validity, and requiring the parallel use of highly professional expert methods, may not be used by specialists who are not psychologists;
f) the user assists psychologists in observing procedural and ethical standards, and takes measures to prevent the incorrect use of methods.
A psychodiagnostic study concludes with the development of a program of actions to be carried out in connection with the results obtained, and recommendations for choosing the optimal methods of treatment, rehabilitation, and so on. L. S. Vygotsky already drew attention to the fact that such a program, or, as he put it, an «assignment», introduces an element of practice into the research, «it is its ultimate purposive setting, it gives meaning to the whole study» (Vygotsky, 1983).
Testing, both psychological and professional, is an important tool for working with personnel. Psychodiagnostics in personnel selection means obtaining a set of psychological characteristics of a candidate, which will subsequently be used to assess his or her professional suitability. It also makes it possible to determine the degree to which such character traits as honesty, sincerity, attitude toward laws, norms and rules, and readiness to comply with internal rules have been formed.
In addition, psychodiagnostics of employees improves the psychological climate of the team and raises the effectiveness of the company's activities. Monitoring the personal qualities of employees optimizes the organizational structure of the company, helps maintain a positive psychological atmosphere in the team, creates favourable conditions for effective activity, allows workplaces to be properly distributed among employees, and helps avoid conflict situations and dissatisfaction within the group.
Psychodiagnostics for hiring purposes involves:
- identifying the positive and negative qualities of the applicant, assessing interpersonal skills, the objectivity of perceiving others, and the correctness of self-assessment;
- assessing organization, the ability to plan, and orientation toward the organization's values;
- testing for a tendency toward laziness, aggressiveness, conflict-proneness, stress resistance, energy, and flexibility of behaviour;
- assessing the need for approval from management and the need for growth. Identifying the priority of types of work.
A psychodiagnostic study also makes it possible to obtain information and answer questions that arise.
Is the person able to cope with the proposed job duties?
How will the new employee fit into the team?
Will he or she become a source of conflict within an already established team?
Does the person being hired have prospects for professional and career growth?
Could his or her business and personal qualities be used in other areas of work?
Is the new employee loyal, can they be relied upon, and can they be entrusted with finances or the client base?
What type of motivation is characteristic of the employee and drives them at work, and how can their activity be made more effective?
The psychological tests used when hiring are selected depending on the requirements for the given employee as a professional, as a member of the team, as a manager, and so on. A separate set (battery) of tests corresponding to the employee's core competencies is compiled for each vacancy. A competent manager or HR manager always has a system of developed criteria for selecting candidates for each vacancy.
For example, an accountant needs to be responsible and attentive, able to work with large volumes of information, have a good memory for numbers, and possess high noise immunity and working capacity. Given that accounting departments are staffed mainly by women, a manager may pay special attention to the ability to coexist without conflict in a female team.
For a line manager, a fairly high level of intelligence, the ability to think and analyze strategically, flexibility of behaviour, the ability to make decisions and take responsibility for them, and the ability to communicate with clients and manage subordinates are important.
An advertising agency designer must produce unconventional ideas, have a rich imagination, be able to work productively and independently, withstand rush periods, and adapt flexibly to clients' requirements.
Based on the foregoing, it can definitely be stated that most companies today have developed a balanced approach to using psychodiagnostics, testing in particular, as a method of personnel selection. This method is now used in combination with other selection methods and is regarded as one of the stages in assessing a candidate's qualities.
Employees' achievements depend on many factors - the ability to perform the work and motivation, the organization of labour at the given firm, and interpersonal relationships. For example, F. Fiedler's many years of research convincingly showed that, under conditions where a manager uses an authoritarian management style and exerts strong pressure, greater achievements are attained by employees with a not particularly high level of intelligence and ability. If, on the other hand, the manager uses a democratic style, a high level of intelligence and creative ability become an advantage.
From this it becomes clear that it makes no sense to select personnel without taking into account the specific environment in which the employee will have to work, relying on «eternal and unchanging» criteria.
Questions on the topic:
Name the factors underlying the need for organizational-managerial diagnostics.
What are the requirements for organizing and conducting psychodiagnostic procedures?
List the principles for structuring a psychological study.
What are the typical errors in conducting personnel psychodiagnostics?
What is a psychodiagnostic conclusion?
What requirements must be observed when presenting results?
The psychodiagnostic diagnosis as a basis for conducting corrective-developmental and training procedures.
The psychodiagnostic diagnosis as a basis for making managerial decisions.
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